AuthorTopic: Does anybody know anything about Suffolk Law in Boston? (Read 5505 times)

I just got my LSAT back with a 157 and I have a 3.2 GPA. Some of my top choices include Suffolk Law and New York Law School. I've heard a lot about NYLS but not much about Suffolk other than that its in Boston. Anybody have any insight on the school?

Suffolk law is actually a pretty good law school. It is also, in my opinion, more student centric than other law schools. It's strongest program is its intellectual property area where they have some first class, well-know scholars. However, there are some real problems with it.

First, it is a very expensive law school. The tuition is over 42K plus room and board in Boston is very high. Even worse, it is NOT a tier 1 or 2 law school. It, thus, has to compete with some better known breathren in Mass such as BC, Harvard, BU etc. Thus, good luck getting a job from there unless you do very well.

I took one look at the tuition and did a double take. Boston is great but 40k+, plus living expenses is close to 200k. The previous poster seems to know his stuff. Suffolk is known, locally, for "low level" blue collar part time study. This is a stereotype and especially unfair. I personally think it has to do with Mass not having a state school (until recently) and some of the other schools in the area being what they are. If you want to practice in Mass, you might want to look into U of Mass, they are too new to be ABA accredited, however, but I'm sure they will be in a few years.

I'm actually going to be visiting Suffolk law in two weeks (along with Northeastern and New England Law), as I'll be applying this fall. The previous posters seem to know their stuff. Suffolk has a decent placement into government and judicial placement in Mass, but you've got to graduate pretty high in your class to get the bigger firm jobs. Having said that, with the slowly improving legal market, if you graduated in 3-4 years you could probably find something at a small/medium firm in Boston. You won't make a ton of money, probably something in the 60-75k starting range. It is a very regional school though, being a lower tier, so don't plan on practicing outside of Mass.

Does New England Law still exist? Didn't UMASS buy the facility for the UMASS law school? I'm trying to remember, or is New England Law a state accredited school and UMASS bought Southern New England? There are, soon to be were, so many dinky low-grade private super expensive law schools in Mass because of the educational vacuum created by a lack of a state school. In a decade about half of them will be gone and UMASS will be the prime mid level school for the state, just like most other states in the nation. Suffolk will probably survive, however, its a very old school.

To update this post. I actually visited Suffolk this past fourth of july and I was very impressed. They had a really nice facility and their library was huge with tons of books and space to study. I talked to a relative of mine who's a lawyer in Massachusetts, (not boston) who works with several Suffolk graduates who all liked the school very much. I also happened to visit Brooklyn law today. I didn't sense much of a difference between the two schools other than the obvious difference in selectivity between the two schools. I have to say that I will end up going to what ever school gives me the most money because it doesn't seem like jobs are to plentiful out of any school unless its a top 10.

New England Law does indeed still exist. It's right on the Boston Commons in downtown. The law school that was bought for the new UMass Law is Western New England Law, way out in the middle of nowhere in Lowell or Amherst, I can't remember which.

They bought Southern New England in Dartmouth. I had to look it up, was driving me crazy . Western New England is still open, and your right it is in the boonies. I don't know how their grads fair, but if I had to guess- not that well. UMass will change the game in Mass. I would love to hear a UMass students opinion on this btw. I think they up for provisional accreditation either this year or next.

If it were me btw I would pick almost any Mass school over Suffolk, including UMass. Suffolk is crazy expensive, just crazy (I mean to the point where its funny, why not make tuition 90K a year or 200K) and they really don't employ so well prospectively. So it costs twice as much to go there and you have half the chance of finding a decent job. One buddy of mine, a Suffolk fan himself, said the only way to really go there is part time and to work- that's from a guy who loves Suffolk. Good luck, regardless where you end up.